Northumberland County is coordinating with local child care providers to offer eligible health care and other frontline workers with no-charge Emergency Child Care Services for school-aged children starting January 10, 2022.
On January 3, 2022, the Province announced that Ontario will temporarily move to a modified ‘Step Two’ of the Roadmap to Reopen as of 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, January 5, 2022. This will include the introduction of additional time-limited public health measures to help slow the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19. As part of this transition, all publicly funded and private schools will move to remote learning until at least January 17. Timelines for returning to in-person learning will be subject to public health trends and operational considerations.
During the remote learning period, licensed child care for infant, toddler and pre-school children may continue, however licensed centre-based care for school-aged children – including before and after school programs – will be closed. The Province has established a list of essential health care and frontline professions who will be eligible for no-cost Emergency Child Care for school-aged children during this period, as of January 10, 2022.
“As local healthcare and frontline workers continue to deliver services that are vital to the health and well-being of our community during the COVID-19 pandemic, Northumberland County and local child care providers are coordinating to provide eligible essential workers with access to Emergency Child Care services,” states Director of Community and Social Services Lisa Horne.
“To facilitate health and safety measures, limited spaces for Emergency Child Care will be available, and care may need to be prioritized based on the occupation and type of care required, in alignment with provincial criteria.”
To apply for Emergency Child Care, residents are invited to complete an application online at Northumberland.ca/ EmergencyChildCare/.
